fallacious

English

Etymology

From Middle English fallacious; equivalent to fallacy +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fəˈleɪ.ʃəs/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

Adjective

fallacious (comparative more fallacious, superlative most fallacious)

  1. Characterized by fallacy; false or mistaken.
    Synonyms: erroneous, incorrect, wrong; see also Thesaurus:false
    Antonyms: accurate, correct, true
    Hyponyms: specious, spurious
    • 1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 3:
      There is a widely diffused notion that among all specimens of animal creation man alone possesses any glimmering of reason. This notion is largely fallacious. It is one of those ideas, based upon superficial knowledge, which appeal to the sophisticated modern public.
  2. Deceptive or misleading.
    Synonyms: deceitful, deceiving, mendacious, misdirective

Derived terms

Collocations

Translations

See also

Further reading

Middle English

Etymology

From fallace +‎ -ous.

Adjective

fallacious

  1. fallacious
    • [1473 or 1474], The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, Composed and Drawen out of Dyuerce Bookes of Latyn in to Frensshe, [Bruges]: [William Caxton and, probably, Colard Mansion]:
      And I shall not assoylle oonly oon of thy sophymes / but as many as thou canst thynke / and wole well that thou knowe that yf by force of thy sophymes and fallacious argumentes thou make me Innocent / I shall doo vnto the lyke as thou woldest do to me / and yf hit happe that thy scyence may not ouercome me / yet woll I well that thou defende the with armes. and that thou kepe thy lyf as well as thou canst {etc}::. Wyth these wordes the monstre maad vnto hercules seuen sofymes oon after an other so fallacio{us} and fo subtyll / that whan hercules had gyuen solucion to oon / the monstre replyed by seuen argumentes / Allway hercules that was full of philosophie and expert in all scyence. Answerd so solempnly to all his fallacious argumentes that he surmoũted hym
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

  • English: fallacious